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LIBRARY 

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THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


HOPE  FOR  OUR  COUNTRY. 


.  , 

4  • 


A    SERMON, 

J  • 


PR K ACHED   IN   THE   SOUTH   CHURCH,   SALEM, 

' 

OCTOBER    19,.  1862, 


RET.    ISRAEL   E.    DWINELL. 


PUBLISHED     BY     REQUEST. 


• 


Printed  by  Charles  W.  Swasey,  No..  27  Washington  Street. 
1863. 


HOPE  FOR  OUR  COUNTRY. 


A    SERMON, 


PREACHED  IN  THE  SOUTH   CHURCH,  SALEM, 


OCTOBER   19,    1862, 


REV.    ISRAEL   E.  DWINElL. 


PUBLISHED     BY    REQUEST. 


S  .A.  L  E  HUE  : 

Printed  b^  Charles  W.  Swasey,  No,  27  Washington  Street. 
1863. 


HOPE  FOR  OUR  COUNTRY. 


Ezek.  xx,  36 — 38.  "  Like  as  I  pleaded  with  your  fathers  in 
the  wilderness  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  so  will  I  plead  with  you,  saith 
the  Lord  God.  And  I  will  cause  you  to  pass  under  the  rod,  and 
T  will  bring  you  into  the  bond  of  the  covenant :  and  I  will  purge  out 
from  among  you  the  rebels,  and  them  that  transgress  against  me." 


God  chose  the  Jews  for  a  great  mission,  and 
remembered  the  object  and  the  covenant ;  and  when 
they  were  unfaithful,  pleaded  with  them,  chastised 
them,  and  brought  them  back.  This  continued  through 
many  successive  generations  and  centuries.  He 
passed  them,  fathers  and  sons,  as  they  needed  it, 
"under  the  rod,"  and  brought  them  "  into  the  bond 
of  the  covenant."  The  motive  was  mercy,  love ; 
hence  the  scourging  was  hot  for  destruction  but  cor- 
rection. The  passing  ' 'under  the  rod"  was  to  bring 
"  into  the  bond  of  the  covenant." 

May  we  not  hope  this  is  so  in  the  case  of  our  Coun- 
try ?  May  we  not  believe  it  ?  God  is  certainly 
pleading  with  us,  and  causing  us  to  "  pass  under  the 
rod:  "  may  we  not  believe,  are  there  not  good  reasons 
to  believe,  that  it  is  not  to  destroy  us,  but  to  bring 
us  into  covenant-bonds  with  him  ? 


I  am  not  one  of  the  desponding  and  foreboding 
prophets.  I  can  see  light  beyond,  and  I  think  through 
this  darkness.  I  do  not  believe  we  are  going  to  swift, 
ruin.  I  believe  that  we  are  coming  up,  and  have 
been,  steadily,  for  the  last  two  years  ;  and  that  hereaf- 
ter this  crisis  and  bloody  agony  will  mark  one  of  the 
brightest  turning-points  of  our  national  history.  And 
I  think  it  is  well,  in  these  days  of  darkness,  when  the 
newspapers  chronicle  barren  movements  of  ouF armies, 
or  daring  raids  of  the  enemy,  or  repeat  the  standing 
announcement,  "All  quiet  along  the  Potomac,"  and 
when  old  advertisements,  week  after  week,  fill  the 
places  where  we  eagerly  look  for  flaming  capitals 
announcing  great  victories, —  to  inspirit  our  confidence 
by  looking  at  the  moral  elements,  the  permanent  princi- 
ples and  facts  of  the  contest.  I  have  more  faith  in 
principles,  in  virtues,  in  ideas,  in  right  and  justice, 
more  faith  in  God  as  upholding  and  favoring  these, 
than  I  have  in  the  varying  fortunes  of  armies  and 
navies.  And  when,  for  the  time,  the  prospects  from 
the  latter  look  dark,  or  not  specially  hopeful  and 
encouraging,  I  do  not  despair  of  the  former,  nor 
through  them  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  cause  of 
the  Republic. 

Let  me,  then,  give  some  of  the  reasons  I  have  for 
Cheerfulness  and  Hope  in  relation  to  the  Future  of  our 
Country. 

The  fundamental  encouragement  comes  from  the 
fact  that  God  reigns,  and  reigns  in  the  interest  of  his 
kingdom.  The  destiny  of  the  nations  is  in  his  hands, 
and  he  is  engaged  in  building  up  a  kingdom  of  right- 
eousness and  peace.  How  can  we  believe,  therefore, 


~ 7 


that  he  designs  ultimately  to  give  this  land  up  to 
anarchy  and  desolation?  It  cannot  be.  The  final 
state  of  this  country  will  be  one  of  prosperity  and 
blessing,  though  there  is  nothing  in  this  consideration 
alone,  to  show  that  there  may  not  be  long  and  waste- 
ful agony  before  it  is  reached.  The  glorious  future 
is  sure,  because  God  reigns,  and  reigns  for  that  fu- 
ture ;  and  because  he  reigns  for  that,  I  believe  he 
will  help  us  into  it  as  soon  and  as  fast  as  we  are 
prepared  for  it, — in  any  event,  sometime  ;  and  be- 
cause he  reigns  for  that,  also,  this  present  trouble  is 
one  step  in  his  providence  towards  it.  This  is  the 
ground  of  my  confidence. 

I  also  derive  encouragement  from  the  analogy  of 
political  changes  and  events  elsewhere  in  modern  times. 
They  suggest  the  thought  that  God,  having  spent 
former  ages  in  the  elementary  lessons  and  preparations 
of  Christian  civilization,  is  now  simply  employing 
political  changes  to  bring  the  nations  '  more  directly 
into  it.  He  seems  to  have  abandoned  the  former 
circuitous  method,  and  to  have  adopted  a  more  speedy 
one.  Nearly  all  the  great  modern  convulsions  have 
resulted  in  the  signal  and  immediate  advantage  of 
Christianity.  The  English  war  with  China  was  in 
fact  but  a  hideous  and  ugly  phantom,  going  before 
Christianity,  leveling  down  Chinese  walls,  and  letting 
in  the  Gospel,  to  make  trial  of  the  swarthy,  unspirit- 
ual  millions.  The  war  in  India  was  as  remarkable  for 
christianizing  the  previous  essentially  pagan  policy  of 
the  English,  in  the  government  of  that  country,  as  for 
hastening  the  downfall  of  the  waning  pagan  religions 

(2) 


6 

themselves;  so  that  the  religious  prospects  of  that  pop- 
ulous country  were  never  before  so  bright  as  on  the 
day  when  that  war  closed.  In  like  manner,  the 
cannon  of  the  French  and  English  in  the  Crimean 
war  were  no  more  effective  in  destroying  the  Russian 
fleet,  or  in  battering  the  Redan  and  Malakoff,  than 
in  shattering  Turkish  prejudices,  and  opening  the 
empire  of  the  Moslems  to  the  gospel  of  Christ.  The 
revolutionary  changes  in  Italy,  also,  have  unchained 
the  Bible,  loosed  the  missionary  from  his  dungeon,  and 
let  a  free  and  pure  Christianity  out  into  the  open  air 
and  the  light  of  the  sun.  May  we  not  believe  that 
these  facts  reveal  God's  present  method  ?  that  he  has 
no  need  now,  in  modern  times,  after  all  the  discipline 
of  his  providence,  and  all  his  preparations,  to  continue 
the  circuitous  process,  but  can  make  political  changes 
direct  steps  in  the  advancement  of  his  kingdom  ?  And 
may  we  not  think  that  he  is  doing  here  what  he  has 
been  doing  elsewhere, — preparing  some  signal  good 
for  us, — leading  us  by  a  "  short  cut  "  into  some  great 
blessing  ? 

I  have  also  a  measure  of  hope  from  the  strength  of 
the  vital  bands  which  bind  modern  civilized  society 
together.  The  dependence  of  the  individual  on  socie- 
ty, in  a  state  of  high  civilization,  for  happiness 
and  comfort  even,  is  complete — far  greater  than  in 
savage  or  half  civilized  life.  The  savage  can  get 
along  without  his  fellows  ;  not  so  the  civilized  man, 
in  these  times  of  the  division  of  labor  and  mutual 
dependence.  Hence  the  strongest  and  ultimately  the 
governing  instincts  of  modern  society  are  towards  law 


and  order,  stable  government,  peace  and  good  will 
towards  man.  The  interlacing  fibres  of  society  are 
now  strong  ;  and  when  other  wants  or  passions  rend 
them  for  a  time,  they  speedily  become  quiet  again, 
and  quiet  produces  soundness  and  health.  Accord- 
ingly in  countries  which  have  been  swept  over  by 
successful  revolutions,  the  vital  interests  of  the  people 
have  experienced  only  a  temporary  injury.  All  the 
vital  and  essential  institutions  have  outlived  the  shock. 
Forms  have  changed,  but  substances  remained.  The 
inner  life  of  the  people  is  the  same,  and  the  things 
they  hold  most  dear,  though  their  outward  relations 
are  altered.  All  the  good,  in  government,  which  their 
civic  worth  entitles  them  to,  they  retain,  or  speedily 
regain.  Thus  a  revolution  in  France  is  but  a  ripple 
on  the  surface.  The  national  spirit,  institutions,  and 
essential  forms  and  methods  of  intercourse,  business, 
and  law,  flow  on  the  same,  substantially,  under  King, 
Constituent  Assembly,  Consul,  Emperor,  King  again, 
Emperor  once  more,  and  then  King,  and  then  Presi- 
dent, and  finally  Emperor.  France  survives  Revo- 
lutions, never  but  for  a  moment  sinking  below  her  own 
moral  and  spiritual  level,  never  but  for  a  moment 
rising  above  it.  Revolutions  in  France  are  like  the 
winds  which  sweep  over  her,  not  materially  touching 
her,  though  for  the  time  causing  her  forests  and  har- 
vests to  bow  before  them. 

I   am  apprehensive,  however,  of  no  such  outward 
change    in  our  government.     Not    at   all.     But   if 
there    should   be    some    slight   modification   of    our 
political  system,   as    the  result  of  the  present  war- 
as   there   may   be  ;   and  even   if  there   should    be   a 


8 

great  and  radical  modification — which  I  do  not  be- 
lieve there  will  be, — there  is  not  the  slightest 
probability  that  the  under-life  of  the  nation  would 
be  disturbed.  We  should  continue  to  be  just 
what  we  are,  to  live  just  as  we  do  live,  and  to 
have  all  the  blessings  we  now  have,  essentially  ; — 
all  the  blessings  our  mental  and  moral  worth  entitles 
us  to  have.  We  have  no  occasion,  even  if  the  worst 
phantom  of  political  change,  which  has  risen  before 
any  feverish  brain,  should  prove  a  reality,  to  despair 
of  the  future.  And  this  hope  I  build,  you  remember, 
on  the  inherent  vitality  and  indestructibleness,  the 
immortality  you  may  call  it,  of  modern  civilized  soci- 
ety, which  enables  it  to  pass  through  the  furnace  of 
revolutions  without  even  the  permanent  smell  of  fire 
upon  it. 

But  I  have  special  reason  for  hope  in  reference  to 
the  future  of  our  country  on  account  of  the  character 
of  our  people.  They  are  generally  intelligent,  under- 
stand their  interest,  think  for  themselves,  and  are 
under  the  power  of  no  corrupt  and  designing  leaders  ; 
and  what  is  far  more,  there  is  a  great  amount  of  solid 
political  virtue  and  patriotism  among  them.  We  love 
money,  indeed  ;  are  selfish  ;  sometimes  forget  country 
in  party  ;  often  have  strong  sectional  prejudices  ;  are 
not  a  little  influenced  by  personal  favoritism  ;  and 
many  are  corrupt  all  through  ;  yet  I  believe  there  is 
not  another  nation  in  which  there  is  so  much  civic 
worth,  both  in  mind  and  heart.  Let  the  emergency 
come,  to  test  principle,  as  it  is  coming,  and  it  will 
not  be  wanting.  Our  people  are  not  the  material  for 


9 

despots  to  lord  it  over  ;  for  corrupt  men  to  use  ;  for 
some  ambitious  general  to  ride,  into  a  dictatorship  ; 
for  politicians  to  sell  ;  for  office-seekers  to  seduce  to 
partisan  issues,  when  Liberty  is  at  stake.  They  are 
not  the  stuff  for  a  Robespierre,  nor  a  Dr.  Francia,  nor 
a  Napoleon  I.  or  III.,  nor  a  Cromwell  even.  Nor  are 
they  the  men  to  consume  one  another  in  anarchy,  or 
to  play  the  part  of  the  Mexican.  I  have  confidence 
in  their  essential  civic  worth  ;  and  hence  I  have  con- 
fidence in  the  future  of  the  Republic.  They  are  not 
the  men  that  will  see  it  destroyed,  or  their  rights  and 
freedom  wrested  from  them,  or  this  country  given  over 
to  wicked  and  corrupt  government.  The  essentials  of 
good  government  are  here,  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  people,  and  in  their  stout  arms  ;  and  such  a  gov- 
ernment they  will  have,  —  and  such  a  government  is 
one  like  that  we  have  now.  I  do  not  fear  lest  it  will 
in  some  way  be  destroyed  by  the  present  shock  of 
arms.  It  will  live,  in  its  essential  integrity.  It  is 
grounded  in  too  many  loving  souls  and  brains  and 
muscles,  all  over  the  land,  to  totter  and  fall  in  our 
day,  or  our  children's  day.  Almost  every  person  you 
see  is  a  living  pillar  of  it,  holding  it  up  with  every 
pledge  of  influence,  property,  and  life.  The  excep- 
tions are  not  worth  the  mentioning.  Despair  not,  my 
friends,  of  the  Republic,  till  this  race  of  Americans  is 
no  more. 

I  am  confirmed  in  this  estimate  by  the  grand  spec- 
tacle now  before  our  eyes,  of  the  uprising  of  more  than 
a  million  armed  men,  to  defend  our  "  altars  and 
hearths, "  and  save  our  country.  This  shows  that  I 


10 

have  not  overestimated  the  civic  worth  and  mettle  of 
our  people.  The  present  is  a  pledge  and  prophecy  of 
the  future.  I  look  upon  this  uprising  of  the  loyal 
population,  and  their  enthusiastic  and  stupendous 
movements,  civil  and  military,  in  favor  of  free  and 
popular  government,  for  the  last  eighteen  months, 
with  awe  and  pride.  We,  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes, 
see  instances  of  poor  generalship,  incompetency,  blun- 
dering, speculation,  fraud,  cowardice,  treachery — 
something  of  the  infinite  waste  and  demoralization 
incident  to  war  ; — but  time  will  cover  up  these  blem- 
ishes of  the  sublime  and  beautiful  picture,  and  bring 
out  in  vivid  colors  the  Patriotism,  the  Heroism,  the 
Enthusiasm,  the  Self-sacrifice,  the  Civic  Glory  ;  and 
fifty  years  hence  I  should  not  be  afraid  to  compare  the 
last  eighteen  months  with  the  other  golden  eras  of 
history. 

But  I  have  another  ground  of  hope  for  our  land. 
This  is  a  Christian  land,  not  by  the  courtesy  of  classi- 
fication, but  more  ;  there  is,  compared  with  any  other 
people,  a  large  percentage  of  really  godly  and  praying 
persons  in  it.  They  supply  the  spiritual  conditions  of 
vitality  and  continuance,  and  these  are  the  most  im- 
portant and  influential  of  any.  We  have  no  reason 
to  indulge  in  spiritual  pride.  Rather  we  have  reason, 
before  God,  for  confession  and  humiliation,  in  view  of 
many  and  great  sins,  individual,  social,  and  national. 
Yet  you  may  always  give  yourself  the  benefit  of  the 
truth;  and  the  truth  is,  this  is  aland  —  as  lands 
go  —  of  real  piety  aud  devotion.  From  this  fact 
I  derive  a  double  encouragement: — First ,  the  prin- 


11 

ciple  comes  in,  that  God  will  spare  the  place  for 
the  sake  of  the  fifty,  forty,  twenty,  ten  righteous  in 
it,  —  a  fact,  doubtless,  which  has  kept  many  a  semi- 
Sodom  from  destruction ;  and  second,  we  have  the 
independent  power  and  efficacy  of  their  prayers, 
pleading  for  our  Country.  Christians  in  themselves, 
silent  and  alone,  are  "the  salt  of  the  earth;"  and 
praying  Christians  have  power  with  God  and  prevail, 
and  Christians  all  over  the  loyal  states  are  praying  to 
God  to  save  and  bless  us. 

Again,  I  derive  comfort  in  remembering  that  our 
fathers,  in  founding  our  institutions  and  civil  system, 
covenanted  with  God.  They  dedicated  this  land  to 
him.  Their  object  was  a  religious  one,  their  aim  to 
honor  him  ;  and  they  entered  into  covenant-bonds 
with  him,  for  themselves  and  those  who  should  live 
after  them.  It  was  a  mutual  transaction.  Their  sig- 
nature was  affixed  in  legible  human  characters  ;  his 
in  the  favoring  providences  that  followed.  Thus  their 
sons,  our  institutions,  and  the  Republic  itself,  were  all 
born  into  the  bonds  of  the  covenant.  Many  of  the 
sons  have  themselves  recognized  and  re-ratified  the 
covenant ;  feel  that  this  is  God's  land,  these  are 
God's  imperiled  institutions  ;  and  plead  with  a  cove- 
nant-keeping God,  to  interpose  and  save  his  own.  I 
do  not  believe  that  God  will  disown  us,  that  he  will 
forget  the  covenant  with  the  fathers  and  the  sons,  that 
he  will  cast  off  his  inheritance.  No,  no ;  rather, 
though  we  have  strayed  from  him  often  and  in  many 
ways,  I  seem  to  hear  him  saying  :  "  Like  as  I  pleaded 
with  your  fathers  in  the  wilderness  of  the  land  of 


12 

Egypt,  so  will  I  plead  with  you.  And  I  will  cause 
you  to  pass  under  the  rod,  and  I  will  bring  you  into  the 
bond  of  the  covenant ;  and  I  will  purge  out  from  among 
you  the  rebels  >  and  them  that  transgress  against  me." 

Moreover,  it  strengthens  my  hopefulness  to  reflect 
on  the  kind  of  our  civilization  and  institutions.  With 
one  sad  exception,  which  must  be  borne  in  mind,  our 
civil  system  represents  the  highest  light  of  modern 
times.  It  is  the  embodiment  of  the  best  ideas  of  civil 
government  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  We  had  the 
advantage  in  this  country  of  starting  into  national  be- 
ing but  a  short  time  ago,  adopting  the  wisdom  of  the  Old 
world,  engrafting  it  in  the  New,  and  repudiating  the 
follies  and  evils.  We  have  no  hereditary  wrongs. — 
You  must  take  along  with  you  the  exception. — We 
have  no  obsolete  and  burdensome  customs.  Society 
here  is  not  stratified  in  fixed,  unsympathizing, 
jealous  classes.  Government  is  not  lodged,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  in  the  hands  of  a  permanent  or  hereditary 
family,  clique,  party,  or  interest.  No  union  of  State 
and  Church  arrests  the  freedom  of  ecclesiastical  life, 
or  vitiates  the  purity  of  individual  and  public  religion. 
There  is  the  freest  possible  scope  and  incentive  for 
manhood, — the  manhood,  whatever  it  is,  much  or  little, 
of  every  citizen.  Surely  the  elements  and  possibilities 
of  human  progress  and  a  rich  nationality — of  some 
solid  contribution  to  the  cause  of  humanity,  exist  here, 
if  anywhere.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  the  world — 
and  I  say  it  knowing  the  danger  and  the  sin  of  pre- 
sumption, but  I  say  it  not  as  an  American,  but  more, 
a  man  regarding  the  interests  of  the  whole  race,  — 


13 

that  the  world  cannot  afford  to  spare  us.  But  this 
is  a  dangerous  point,  and  I  leave  it.  This  at  least  is 
safe  :  unless  there  is  some  other  good  reason  for  our 
destruction,  God  certainly  will  not  destroy  us  because 
our  country  has  so  many  elements  of  hope  and  promise. 
Other  things  being  equal,  this  is  in  our  favor. 

I  am  also  encouraged  from  this  consideration  :  we 
are  in  the  midst  of  an  unfinished  experiment  of  a  new 
kind  of  government.  There  has  never  before  been  a 
trial  of  a  Free  Representative  government,  a  govern- 
ment of  Popular  Rights  and  Duties,  among  a  large 
Christian  people ; — and  such  a  government  more  nearly 
corresponds  with  the  intimations  in  Scripture  of  the 
Divine  choice,  than  any  other.  Some  such  system  will 
doubtless  be  the  final  or  millenial  form,  when  all 
shall  be  ''kings  and  priests  unto  God."  Now,  Chris- 
tian nations  have  made  full  trial  of  other  kinds  of 
government, — Absolute,  Centralized,  Monarchical,  Ar- 
istocratic, Confederate.  They  have  little  more  to 
learn  about  their  worth  or  capabilities.  They  have 
measured  their  capacity.  No  new  lessons  of  any  value 
can  be  taken  from  them.  It  is  not  so  in  reference  to 
a  large  Christian  Republic.  The  trial  of  this,  so  nearly 
coincident  with  the  Divine  idea,  is  reserved  for  the 
last.  The  experiment  is  novel.  And  if  it  should  be 
arrested  here,  who  would  think  it  had  been  fairly  tried  ? 
who  would  not  say  the  world  has  something  yet  to 
learn  about  Self- Government  ?  who,  in  coming  ages, 
would  not  wish  America  back  to  finish  her  mission? 

Now,  we  can  not  say  that  God  may  not  remove  a 
nation — just  as  he  sometimes  removes  individuals  — 


14 

which,  to  human  view,  seems  more  promising  and 
hopeful  than  any  other  at  the  time.  He  has  done  it, 
in  at  least  two  instances; — when  the  Jews,  a  nation 
with  the  Bible  and  divine  ordinances,  were  overcome 
by  Pagan  Rome,  and  their  nationality  perished  out- 
wardly ;  and  when,  several  centuries  later,  this  same 
Roman  Empire,  but  now  christianized  and,  alone  of 
the  nations,  having  the  gospel  in  trust,  was  vanquished 
by  the  Pagan  tribes  of  the  North.  But  in  both  these 
cases  there  was  this  peculiarity  :  they  had  obviously 
fulfilled  their  mission.  They  had  been  raised  up  to 
prepare  a  certain  legacy  for  the  future  ;  they  had 
prepared  it ;  and  it  was  found  that  they  could  hand 
it  over  to  mankind  in  a  purer  and  better  condition  by 
their  demise  as  nations,  than  by  their  continuance. 
Hence  they  perished  ;  and  the  race  without  obstruc- 
tion entered  into  their  labors,  and  a  comparatively 
dead  religion,  in  both  cases,  lost  its  civil  support,  and 
thus  was  the  revival  of  a  purer  and  living  religion 
made  ultimately  possible  and  easy. 

Our  mission  as  a  nation,  on  the  contrary,  seems 
still  immature.  If  we  stop  here,  we  have  wrought 
out  no  valuable  ideas.  We  leave  no  legacy  to  the 
world,  but,  as  it  were,  of  the  failure  of  a  legacy, — a 
work  begun  but  unfinished, — a  lesson  of  confused 
meaning.  We  teach  it  nothing  about  the  value  or 
worthlessness  of  Free  Institutions.  And  the  very 
thing  for  which  God  seems  to  have  raised  us  up,  and 
given  us  a  place  among  the  nations,  is  unaccom- 
plished. I  do  not  believe  that  this  will  be.  We 
shall  finish  our  work.  We  shall  teach  mankind 
some  positive  and  decisive  .lesson  about  this  novel 


15 

and  yet  Christian  idea  of  a  State.  The  new 
and  the  last  experiment  of  government  will  not  pass 
away  as  a  spectre  which  men  witness  and  then  dis- 
pute about,  not  agreeing  concerning  its  form,  move- 
ments, or  objects.  God  will  not  remove  so  great 
and  powerful  a  nation,  for  which  he  has  done  so 
much,  till  it  has  fulfilled  its  mission,  and  made  a 
definite  mark  on  the  world's  destiny. 

I  augur  well  for  our  country,  also,  because  I  be- 
lieve this  is  the  last  great  struggle  of  slavery,  and 
God  has  appointed  us  to  meet  and  vanquish  it  for  all 
coming  time.  There  are  many  things  which  lead  me 
to  think  that  slavery  is  now  mustering  its  forces  for 
a  final  conflict.  In  ancient  times,  it  rested  its  claims 
on  the  right  of  conquest,  of  the  stronger,  of  force ; 
then  on  civil  welfare  and  the  advantage  of  the  upper 
classes ;  still  later,  and  in  modern  times,  on  unavoid- 
able but  reluctant  necessity,  and  the  welfare  of  the 
slave  ;  now,  on  inherent  Eight,  Christianity,  the  Bi- 
ble,— on  every  obligation  sacred  and  profane,  on  earth 
and  in  heaven  !  It  employs,  you  perceive,  the  final 
arguments.  It  can  invent  none  higher,  none  lower. 
It  can  wield  no  greater  lies.  It  can  use  no  more 
reckless  or  defiant  logic,  no  more  presumptuous  or 
blasphemous  rhetoric.  It  has  also  exhausted  legis- 
lation in  its  behalf,  and  state-craft,  and  diplomacy. 
And  at  this  moment  it  is  staking  for  it  all  its  wealth, 
resources,  and  population,  in  an  unheard  of  rebel- 
lion and  bloody, civil  war.  Surely  these  are  the 
characteristics  and  elements  of  a  final  struggle.  It  is 
mustering  now  more  resources  of  all  kinds  than  it 


16 

can  ever  summon  into  the  field  again  ;  and  if  it  fails 
here  and  now,  the  death-knell  of  slavery  will  vir- 
tually be  sounded  in  our  world. 

If  this  is  so,  will  God  suffer  us,  the  chosen  cham- 
pion against  it,  to  perish  ?  Will  he  appoint  us  to 
represent  His  interests  in  this  deadly  issue,  and  then 
permit  us  to  fail  ?  I  do  not  believe  it.  If  we  fall, 
what  will  be  the  end  of  the  heaven-daring  and  blas- 
phemous sin  1  Who,  in  all  this  world — we  may?  in 
the  light  of  recent  events,  now  well  ask — can  or 
will  grapple  with  it  ? 

And,  once  more,  I  am  greatly  encouraged  because 
we  are  beginning  to  put  ourselves  right  in  reference 
to  this  very  issue.  The  cause  of  the  war  is  clearly 
slavery ;  and  we  tried  for  a  long  time — the  govern- 
ment, generals,  the  army,  the  people — to  fight  the 
war,  and  save  the  sin ;  and  God  would  not  suffer  it. 
Gradually,  but  rapidly,  he  has  converted  us  to  the 
ways  and  demands  of  righteousness  and  humanity. 
And  now  the  Proclamation  of  the  President  puts  us 
right.  Now  we  are  openly  and  directly  on  the  side 
of  God ;  and  now  we  may  hope  to  have  his  favor. 
It  is  not  often  that  in  great  civil  commotions  moral 
principles  are  brought  into  such  direct  conflict,  as 
they  now  are  here.  They  usually  are  mixed  and 
confused  with  other  influences  and  considerations. 
I  cannot  doubt,  therefore,  if  we  are  true  to  our  pres- 
ent promise,  on  which  side  God  will  lend  his  aid.  I 
believe  that,  as  he  has  permitted  the  conflict  to 
come  upon  us  because  of  slavery,  suffering  it  to 
make  one  final  stupendous  rally  with  all  its  argu- 


17 

ments  and  forces,  and  as  we  have  now  decided  to 
accept  the  issue,  as  one  between  Light  and  Dark- 
ness, Christianity  and  Barbarism,  face  to  face,  he  will 
enable  us  to  crush  it,  once  for  all,  for  the  good  of  our 
country  and  the  world,  and  to  survive  the  conflict. 
Our  right  moral  position,  now  proclaimed  by  the 
President,  sustained  by  our  armies  and  patriotic  toils 
and  sacrifices,  and  divinely  quickened  by  our  prayers 
and  pleadings,  taken  in  contrast  with  the  infamous 
moral  position  of  the  rebels,  is  in  itself,  when  we  re- 
member that  a  God  of  Justice  reigns,  a  host,  and 
should  encourage  the  most  desponding  heart.  I  did 
not  despair  of  the  Republic  before  ;  for  I  saw  that 
the  issue  was  virtually  one  between  Freedom  and 
slavery  ;  but  now  that  this  issue  is  officially  recog- 
nized on  our  side,  as  well  as  on  the  other,  and  that 
hereafter  our  policy  will  be  directly  in  the  interests 
of  Freedom,  I  am  sanguine  and  exultant.  We  are 
now,  on  this  point  and  so  far,  clearly  with  God,  and 
I  believe  God  will  be  with  us. 

These  are  some  of  the  things  which  make  me 
hopeful  and  confident  in  regard  to  the  future  of  our 
country.  I  have  dwelt  only  on  considerations  aris- 
ing from  peculiarities  on  our  side.  When  I  contrast 
these,  however,  with  those  on  the  other  side,  I  am 
much  more  sanguine.  It  seems  to  me  that  there 
was  hardly  ever  in  the  history  of  the  world,  consid- 
ering the  light  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  a  less 
promising  candidate  for  the  favor  of  Heaven,  than 
the  Southern  Rebellion.  I  concede  daring,  energy, 
an  unexpected  fertility — a  certain  unnatural  and 

(5) 


18 

satanic  kind  of  desperation  and  reckless  furor.  I  con- 
cede good  generalship,  a  large  army,  and  many 
successes.  I  concede  a  mean  and  low  sympathy  in 
England  and  on  the  continent,  among  the  classes 
jealous  of  America.  But  the  foul  and  wicked  origin 
of  the  candidate,  his  avowed  principles  and  objects, 
his  blasphemous  assumptions  and  arguments,  his 
appearance  on  the  stage  as  the  armed  and  bloody 
champion  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  Barbarism,  his 
malignant  assault  on  the  application  of  the  great 
ideas  of  Freedom  and  Equality,  Justice  and  Human- 
ity, which  are  the  glory  of  modern  times, —  these 
things  will  ultimately,  I  imagine,  procure  for  him 
small  favor  with  the  Arbiter  of  the  destiny  of  nations. 
When,  therefore,  I  look  at  our  side,  and  see  the 
noble  moral  elements  in  the  objects  for  which  we 
fight,  and  then  cast  my  eyes  Southward,  and  con- 
trast with  them  the  shameless  and  untimely  immo- 
ralities contended  for  on  the  other  side,  I  can  not 
believe, — no,  never,  never, — that  this  is  the  time 
when  God  will  overthrow  Freedom  and  the  ideas 
of  Right  and  Humanity  he  has  been  slowly  working 
out  into  practice  for  thousands  of  years,  and  inau- 
gurate the  Evangel  of  Slavery,  the  satanic  creed 
of  Despotism  and  Selfishness. 

Let  us,  then,  my  friends,  fellow-countrymen,  not 
despond,  nor  doubt ;  nay,  let  us  take  courage  and 
hope.  Let  us  lean  on  God  and  the  great  principles 
of  Truth  and  Righteousness.  Let  us  be  true  to  the 
ideas  and  issues  involved  in  this  contest,  and 
entrusted  to  us,  and  we  can  not  fail, —  God  will  never 


19 

let  us  ;  and  we  shall  freely  contribute  our  substance, 
freely  surrender  fathers  and  sons  and  brothers,  and 
freely  give  ourselves,  as  duty  may  call, — and  not 
feel  that  the  sacrifice  is  thrown  away  and  wasted,  or 
that  the  price  is  too  great.  We  need  to  look  above 
the  anxious  and  changing  aspects  of  the  contest, 
and  stay  ourselves  on  the  reigning  God  of  Justice, 
and  the  sublime  Ideas  and  Merits  of  our  Cause,  and 
only  look  below  to  see  and  do  our  Duty. 

Let  us  then  hold  up  our  faces  where  the  light 
from  Above  may  fall  on  them,  and  be  reflected 
around  us,  and  no  longer  carry  them  downward 
where  earthly  mists  and  exhalations  darken  them, 
and  thus  use  us  in  diffusing  and  increasing  the 
gloom.  And  as  we  thus  become  strong  within,  let 
those  around  us,  let  the  Cause,  let  our  Country  have 
the  benefit  of  it.  Let  us  bear  our  part  of  the 
troubles  of  the  times  with  firm  hearts  ;  quicken 
and  encourage  one  another ;  and  give  the  Govern- 
ment, our  brave  men  in  the  field,  and  all  in  ear- 
nest in  suppressing  the  Rebellion,  the  advantage  of 
a  cheerful  and  hopeful  spirit,  warm  sympathy,  and 
effectual  support  and  devotion.  Thus  shall  we  be 
serene,  peaceful,  hopeful,  confident,  and  in  the  end 
successful. 

God  hasten  it  in  his  time. 


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